Mourinho: Stop Thinking Troy Parrott Is The Second Harry Kane

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has urged his side’s fans to stop thinking Troy Parrott is “the second Harry Kane” following their FA Cup exit at the hands of Norwich City on Wednesday.

The 18-year-old Republic of Ireland star got 30 minutes under his belt during the 1-1 draw but missed a penalty attempt in the subsequent shootout as a score from Adam Idah helped Norwich secure their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Speaking to BBC Sport following the loss, Mourinho was quick to defend Parrott’s saved penalty but admitted that his lack of game time proves he is not necessarily following in the footsteps of fan favourite, Harry Kane.

“The penalty is nothing. He is a penalty taker in the under-23s, he scores every one in the unders. He was so confident, he wanted to take one, he wanted to take the responsibility, it’s an experience in his career.

“The problem is not his experience. The problem is the 30 minutes. Now people can see that he has to work a lot so don’t think that Parrott is the second Harry Kane because he’s just a young kid that needs to work,” continued Mourinho.

“Let’s forget the penalty because we all miss the penalties, it was not Troy.”

His cameo in the game won’t have made much of an impression on Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy who adamantly stated earlier this week that Parrott has no chance of making his squad for the Euro play-off against Slovakia if he is not playing regular football.

“Forget it; don’t even think about it. Unless, of course, Troy gets in over the weekend and does something amazing. If he comes on for five minutes and scores two goals, I might look at it different.

“Shane Long’s been playing in the Premier League and Scott Hogan has scored six goals in the last seven games. David McGoldrick is back playing. I don’t think Troy comes close to them.

“If I played somebody like that, you’d think I was bonkers. How can you justify that? Just that he’s potentially a good footballer.”